Zappa.com

"I killed the scorpion not because he was a scorpion,
but because he was unlucky."



"Doc reads the newspapers and watches the TV news,
...anybody who does that will believe anything."

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Lesser-evilism is war.

Fucken-A, new Craig Alanson



If anyone's interested in a new Sci-fi series, here's a good one...

Earth gets swept up in the crossfire of the ongoing intergalactic war...

All species are allied with one of two sides in a strict hierarchy according to technology level.

The characters, and species with their traits are wonderful.

The main series is of the "Merry Band of Pirates," protecting Earth using stolen hardware, (they pirate and trade up starships, dropships, etc.)), but they can't let any species know humans are in space, so everything is covert... They have to trick other species into blaming and fighting each other, and pull off all kinds of space ops that are pretty cool...he's developed space combat with it's relativistic influences, for example if you know a ship is 5 light minutes away from you, you only know where it was 5 minutes ago...it thoroughly changes strategy, you fight with distance, and that's written into the book.

SPOILER ALERT
You need to jump in near a star but there are three lizard ships nearby who would open fire immediately as you're in a hijacked ship of one of their enemies.

Two of their ships are together, and the other is a few light seconds away.

You have a senior species piece of technology aboard that can hack the systems of either ship(s) you jump in near, and overload it's jump coils...but the OTHER ship(s) will see you jump in, and open fire on you no matter which ships you jump in near.

What do you do?

You jump in near one ship, start the overload, and immediately jump it between the other two ships for it to detonate.

The lizards on the bridge will barely have 2/3rds of a second to realize what's happening to them

The above book is the second in a spinoff series that started just before book 4 of the main series, these are a few thousand humans stranded on a planet, sorta semi-ignored by the species that live there. They don't know the Merry Band of Pirates is out there influencing events, and they don't know what happened to Earth after they left.



It all starts here in this Book 1 of the main series


I'd recommend it to any Sci-fi fan, you won't be sorry

"And stay off route 27 or the hamsters might see you!"

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Lesser-evilism is war.

Just finished The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

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Join the PackardGoose forum! Send me a PM!

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

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Lesser-evilism is war.

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

How was it? I really like the Lincoln Rhyme series (except for Broken Window, which I thought was a bit boring.)

it was ok. I have only read one book of the lincoln rhyme series before; the bone collector. I read it after I saw the movie years ago (and, I never understood why they cast denzel washington as a crippled cop, unable to move...).

anyway; the empty chair is ok. it has a very interesting character in it; a 16-year old kid called the insect boy. jeffrey deaver obviously does a lot of research before writing his books, they're well written, suspenseful and all that shit.

but, he tends to throw in too many twists and turns at the end of his books. the same with edge, which I posted above (not about lincoln rhyme).

if you have a boring weekend coming up, without any big plans, I'd say read it. it'll pass the time.

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

^^1918's H1N1 influenza above is the parent to all H/N influenza virus', and its descendant H5N1 is already here, has a death rate of 50% presently, but has only 4 of the 5 enzymes needed to go airborne (it's person-to-person through direct contact only now), but is making billions of mutations a day in industrialized chicken sheds. Freed by proximity to natures natural limit on voracity, ultra deadly H5N1 has emerged; you can kill your host when the next beak is only inches away. When it gets the 5th enzyme for it's H spike, it will be able to cut through protective airway mucus ("lungs are the easy way in" - M Greger), and unleash the 50%+ death rate of it's N spike.

^^^ The Spanish Flu* above (first seen in the US), had a 2.5% death rate (Covid-19 around 1%), however H5N1 presently is killing 50% in the wild, and it's Z+ strain in labs has a 100% death rate. These will be the death rates when it goes airborne.

Anthony Fauci says of H5N1, "Get rid of the if, this IS going to occur."

Gregory Poland of the Mayo Clinic, "When this happens, time will be described by those left living as before and after the pandemic. Billions will be killed. We are a half a step away from catastrophe."

When get the news that an outbreak of H5N1 happened, it will be too late, it will be near everyone in weeks and it will run its course. Like its grandpa H1N1 in 1918, it will kill by turning ones immune system against one, dissolving the lungs to produce cough/spread, thus the death rate will be highest (70%+), in the 20 - 40 age bracket where the strongest immune systems are.

In the mild 1% Covid-19 death rates, people can still go to work, we didn't lose water/power/heat/food stores/medical/internet...but in a 50% death rate, bodies piling up may keep people from going to work. In 50% death rates, nobody's gonna want to go out for nothin... That may give cause for thought to one's preparedness, to isolate for 12 to 18 months while a catastrophe blows over.

Funny such newsworthy information is not on the so -called "news," I wonder if it has anything to do with Tyson, and Purdue, and McDonald's millions of advertising dollars, you deserve a break today an all that...

At any rate, to learn more from history, to know more about the future


BTW...Influenza timeline, the result of the cramming of thousands of chickens together in sheds that super-blossomed in the 70's and 80's. One of the H7 variants is nearly as frightening as H5N1...


(Snowflakes to avalanche as poultry production industrialized).

I'm dying for some chicken, lol.

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Lesser-evilism is war.

The story's pretty weak, but fortunately it's fully illustrated...

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I'm petulant, and I'm having a frenzy...

It's not all about Trump. It's about that 40% that defies all logic.
And the second coming of Civil War.

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No doubt, we're doomed !
For a real Democracy: abolish Electoral College

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

I guess you're reading it a second time ?

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No doubt, we're doomed !
For a real Democracy: abolish Electoral College

^ ^ ^ ^ ^

second time? more like fourth or fifth.



and the same goes for 'electric don quixote', which I posted above.

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

That's what I thought !
Happy Holidays, Lumpy

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No doubt, we're doomed !
For a real Democracy: abolish Electoral College

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

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"bit of nostalgia for the old folks."

meditations on sawdust
by trevor dunn

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that's what happens when you don't read you loose your link to higher thinking

A 76 years old man, about to commit suicide, decides to see his friends and relatives before doing so.
To some he tells, to others not.
He asks the question "Do I own my own life ?".
He feels he may miss his chance of dying gracefully and not becoming a burden on others.
Highly philosophical, written in the form of a daily journal.

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No doubt, we're doomed !
For a real Democracy: abolish Electoral College

Got all 5 volumes of Cassius Dio's "Roman History" in German for Xmas. First volume deals with early Roman History up 'till Sulla. It consists mostly of fragments which are all, er, pretty fragmentary, fortunately followed by summaries from Byzantine authors, who had actually read the original. Learned some new stuff, but am looking forward to the next four volumes - from about book 35 the complete original text has survived.

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"I have learned from my mistakes, and I am sure I can repeat them exactly."